iRiver has announced a new e-book reader that looks a whole lot like the Kindle 2 with its white cover, grayscale screen and keyboard. It is called the iRiver Wi-Fi Story and is available in the UK for 250 pounds. That equals to about $376 USD.
Wi-Fi Story users can download books from the WHSmith e-book store via the wi-fi connection. The device is compatible with many file types: ePub, PDF, Microsoft Office, and images such as JPG, GIF and BIMP. I wonder if the images work better for the iRiver device than they do for the Kindle? Kindle readers have complained about the quality of graphics on the e-reader for awhile now, especially for magazines.
The iRiver Wi-Fi Story also includes the ability to play music. Considering that iRiver is known for awesome media players, the ability to play music would allow the e-reader to fit in with the other media players made by the company. Amazon recently released audio for Kindle, but it isn’t compatible with the Kindle itself. Hopefully, that will be available in a future release. The iRiver e-reader definitely has an advantage with the media feature for now.
The iRiver e-reader doesn’t hold a candle to the Kindle price wise. The Kindle is available for $189, which is almost $200 less than the price of the Wi-Fi Story in US dollars. The battery life for the Wi-Fi Story is 900 pages. The Kindle’s battery life is two weeks with wireless connection off. I’m not sure how they get the 900 pages figure because reading speed depends on the individual.
I think a page-turn-life for the battery makes more sense, since power is only used for page turns. Reading speed doesn’t matter, but how much you read a day does. My first charge with my Kindle lasted a month since I was only reading for a half an hour at bedtime most days. Then I moved abroad where my visa doesn’t allow me to work, and I sometimes read for half the day. My battery doesn’t last for 1 week with the wireless off, let alone 2.
Elisa, I wish that was the case, but the kindle doesn’t sleep as much as it could while you are reading a page
I do agree that 2 weeks is an ‘average use’ thing that is worthless.
what’s worse is how much the battery drains while wireless is enabled (even if it’s ‘off’ it still drains significantly more power)
the kindle has has the ability to play MP3s since day 1 (admittedly I don’t use it, but is there some problem with that capibility?)